Industrial Hygiene, Safety, and Environmental Science Knowledge Base

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The purpose of this blog is to be of use to ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL clients and others who are interested in environmental and occupational health. I respectfully ask my audience to respond with cogent comments, amplifications, and questions. I will take the emotional component of such subjects as indoor air quality in to account. And those who respond in the positive or negative without explanation will be answered with a comment such as “Seventy-two (72) people agreed with the above article, and fourteen (14) people disagreed”. I for my part will not try to infer the “why” of unexplained opinions.

As to SPAMMING a BLOG, I just don’t get it. Spammers whether nefarious or merely the sellers of sunglasses are wasting their time and resources. With due respect, my readers and I need our space since after all this blog is dedicated to learning about environmental and occupational health. And those who have dedicated their professional lives to environmental health do not have a lot of free time to be wasted. However, if you are a seller of environmental equipment or services and your product is relevant to the line of discussion, then please make a comment to that effect (contact information and web links are appreciated).

As you may have noticed I have not posted to this blog for some months as ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL’s web presence is being upgraded. A lot of what I do as an Industrial Hygienist has to do with taking care of the immediate needs of my client’s and their employees. My focus since starting ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL in 1988, has been clients first, business administration second. In starting this site I wanted a cogent venue to present important developments in Industrial Hygiene and Safety that was easier to manage than the old .HTML version of this site. Given new OSHA silica rule that is due to be adopted, and recent developments in the way we consider indoor air quality. I will be posting to this site more in the coming weeks.

In his article “Get Wind of this: Mosquitoes can’t fly near a blowing fan”, William J. Broad, of the New York Times reveals a novel method of mosquito control. A method approved by the American Mosquito Control Association, based in Mount Laurel, NJ. Since female mosquitoes in search of a blood meal can only fly at on to on and a half miles per hour, a oscillating household fan blowing across your next dinner party on the deck is all that’s necessary to blow them away. Also, it should be known that mosquitoes are repelled by the smoke from citronella candles not the pleasant lemon smell. And while using a fan blowing over sleeping children to protect them from mosquito bites in a screened in bedroom is a good idea. The use of insect repellent is necessary to protect the kids and outdoor workers from West Nile bearing mosquitoes when outside is still necessary.

Even so communities must still bait standing bodies of waters and spray as necessary to control West Nile disease bearing mosquitoes in their area.

Note: This information was originally published in 2003. Risk is constantly changing. But then if risk didn’t change it wouldn’t be risk.

You have:

1 in 100 Chance of death in an Auto Accident.

1 in 300 Chance of being a victim of Murder.

1 in 800 Chance of death in an Fire.

1 in 2,500 Chance of death in an Accidental Shooting.

1 in 5,000 Chance of death by Electrocution.

1 in 10,000 Chance of dying due to an Asteroid or Comet Impact.

1 in 30,000 Chance of dying in a Jetliner Crash.

1 in 30,000 Chance of drowning in a Flood.

1 in 60,000 Chance of being killed by a Tornado.

1 in 100,000 Chance of death by Snakebite or Insect Sting.

1in 1 Million Being the victim of a Fireworks Accident.

1 in 3 Million Dying of Botulism Poisoning.

* Please note that the risk of dying in an asteroid or comet impact is high due to the high numbers of people who would be killed in a single event, from 50 to 100 million in the United States alone. Remember when the stakes are high the risk goes up. Also, children under age four have a higher chance of dying due to botulism poisoning (never give a baby honey). This means the vulnerability of stake holders must be taken in account when determining risk.

Average accidental death probabilities for U.S. residents, based upon a 1994 paper by C.R. Chapman & D. Morrison, Impacts on the Earth by asteroids & comets: assessing the hazards, Nature, 367, 33-40, and updated by Duncan Steel in his book Target Earth : the search for rogue asteroids and doomsday comets that threaten our planet, Pleasantville, N.Y. : Reader’s Digest Association, 2000.

Note: This information was originally posted in the year 2000. Since then many occupational health and environmental compliance concerns have been integrated into ISO9001 Quality Systems.

ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL is developing practical methodologies to integrate the
International Standards Organization (ISO) environmental management and product
standards into the environmental and safety programs of our small business
clients. To do this we are using both ISO and American Industrial Hygiene
Association (AIHA) documentation.

The goal of the ISO 14000 series standards is to:

Define the systems and managerial tools for environmental compliance.

Enhance the ability to achieve and measure environmental improvements.

Facilitate trade through process evaluation and product labeling.

The AIHA has provided guidance to integrate occupational health and safety
into the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) model and a concise
manual for practice for industrial hygiene auditing. This is critical since
workers are the members of the community which are most closest to the
environmental hazards.

This post was originally created in the year 2000, when search engines brought a few high school students to the ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL web site, looking for help with their term papers…..

WATCH THIS SPACE . . . SCHOOL IS UPON US !

Aniline, The Chemical with 1000 & 1 Uses

This report is written for the dozens of professionals and students who have e-mailed me over the past few years asking questions about the toxicology, uses, and environmental control of the chemical aniline.

The 2000 ACGIH TLV & Current OSHA PEL

2 ppm Skin toxin. Note: A3 a known carcinogen in animals which may be relevant to humans.

The BEI (Biological Exposure Indices) is 50 mg/g creatinine, 1.5% of hemoglobin, measured as total p-aminophenol in urine and methhemoglobin in blood. These determinants are nonspecific. Blood measurements are subject to background readings and are semi-quantitative, that is only useful as a screening test.

SILICA PELs & TLVs
An Explanation
Note: This information was originally published in 1997.

The 1997 ACGIH TLV
The current American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist TLVs(tm) (threshold limit value) for Silica – are:
Cristobalite [14464-46-1] (1986) – 0.05 mg/m³ (j)
Quartz [14808-60-7] (1986) – 0.1 mg/m³ (j)
Tridymite [15468-32-3] (1986) – 0.05 mg/m³ (j)
Tripoli [1317-95-9] (1986) – 0.1 mg/m³ (j) of contained respirable dust.
Note (j): These TLVs are for the respirable fraction of particulate matter for the substance listed . The concentration of respirable dust for the application of this limit is to be determined from the fraction passing a size selector with the characteristics defined in the “C” paragraph of Appendix D.
That is: a cyclone device with a median cut off point for particles from 3.5 to 4.0 um operating at a rate of 1.7 lpm (liters per minute) for an Mine Safety Appliances cyclone or 2.6 lpm for an aluminum SKC cyclone.
The magnitude of the personal exposure of silica can be determined by the quite straight forward procedure of comparing the laboratory results for silica to the TLV.
Currently both OSHA and MSHA use the ACGIH 1973 TLVs for their legal exposure limits or PELs (permissible exposure limits). The agencies believe this limit is more valid for mixtures containing lower percentages of silica.

The OSHA PEL (MSHA TLV)
The OSHA / MSHA PEL calculation serves effectively to lower the PELs for Respirable Dust (5 mg/m³) and Total Dust (10 mg/m³) down to levels which take into account the adverse health effects of breathing silica dust. Thus workers in ceramics plant would be more at risk for lung disease breathing 10% silica dust than non-silica dust.
Silica:
Crystalline
Quartz (Respirable) PEL = 10 mg/m³ ÷ %Silica + 2
Quartz (Total Dust) PEL = 30 mg/m³ ÷ %Silica + 2
For Cristobalite and Tridymite use 1/2 the value calculated from the formula for quartz.
The % of silica or %SiO(2) [silicon dioxide] is found on your lab report.
Remember you must compare the respirable dust or total dust exposure monitoring results to the calculated PELs. Comparing the raw numbers of the silica results to the calculated PELs is like comparing apples to oranges. Remember you are calculating a PEL for a mixture so you must compare it to the monitoring results for a mixture to make a valid exposure determination.

Over the past several winters we have been testing an anti-ice damming insulation system. Ice damming is an indoor air quality problem in colder climates. Ice dams occur when heat escaping from the house melts the snow on the eave line into solid ice. When the weather warms water leaks under the eaves providing moisture to encourage the growth of fungus which thrives in moist, dark, wet places. The spores given off contain several toxins, the most significant of which are mycotoxins which are very irritating to the upper respiratory tract. Mycotoxins may cause headaches, nose bleeds, and immune system suppression. Some fungus, such as, Alternaria are known allergens.
While air cleaning devices such as the Clairity (no longer manufactured) are effective in removing mold and fungus spores from the air, it is best to prevent the problem from occurring. Usually keeping the wood of the roofing system dry will cure the problem. Also, replacement of materials usually is more effective than the application of fungicides.
The immediate cure is to remove the snow, that is the moisture supply from the roof. In North-east Ohio where I live the problem usually occurs on the flat or shed roofs of family rooms attached to the house. In the case of flat roofs easy access is available thru the second story by door or window to shovel off the roof. I recommend a plastic shovel or push broom. For the shed roof a “roof rake” is available in most hardware stores. this consists of a rake like shovel with about four extension pieces. With the roof rake you can clear the snow off the shed roof without leaving the ground. Either procedure should not damage intact roofing materials. And while “roof raking” may go down in history as the stupid chore of the new millennium, it is infinitely preferable to tripping over several dozen drip catching buckets.
The long term cure lies in improved insulation and gutters. Gutter heaters are of no immediate help. Several gutter manufactures offer gutter covers, such as, the Gutter Helmet™. These covers direct water into the gutter while allowing leaves and snow to fall off. The insulation system I installed in my study ceiling consists of standard R-19 fiberglass insulation backed with Reflectix™ radiant heat barrier (aluminum coated bubble wrap). This system keeps the heat inside to preventing the snow on the roof from melting. Also in the summer when the rest of the house is air conditioned , the study is about five degrees cooler.

My name is Steven Pressman. I am an Industrial Hygienist in General Practice working in Cleveland, Ohio since 1988. This new WordPress blog is meant to augment the ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL ANI-Gram Newsletter. In the future my clients will be e-mailed the newsletter and the content will be posted here. In addition to posts concerning industrial hygiene, safety, and environmental issues — watch for new categories such disaster preparedness and workplace violence prevention. This blog is meant for the general public, as well as my colleagues in the industrial hygiene and safety field. It is especially directed toward small business owners who have constituted the majority of my clients over the last 25 years. My current website is http://www.aniline.com/ where you can access the old IH Know How by the link at the very middle of the page.